Heard about the new religion? Some contemporary debates center on questions about God in government: Were the Founders attempting to create a secular state in which church and government were strictly separated? Or did they have in mind a Republic that gave a nod to Judeo-Christian moral foundations? In the face of unprecedented socialization in healthcare, banking and other sectors, however, worrying about whether the word “God” appears on a nickel is like worrying about a spider in the bathtub while someone torches your house. In other words, God in government is a conversation for another day. Government as God? This is what we should be talking about.
As America continues to secularize and lurch leftward, Americans have found something new to believe in. And government has everything a hungry, anxious spirit requires.
Consider the parallels (X = God or Government):
1. In times of crisis, people turn to X to give them comfort and pray X will solve all their problems.
2. X possesses special knowledge about the affairs of ordinary people, which even they themselves do not possess.
3. X has a special power to intercede in their affairs to positive effect, as long as they are faithful and obedient.
4. Forces beyond anyone’s control can be tamed by the will of X.
5. X can work through proxies and agents to exert his will. They are anointed by X.
6. X requires sacrifice, whether in tithes (taxes) or submission to His will.
7. Such sacrifices to X are rewarded tenfold (by X), who had infinite resources.
8. People organize and evangelize to their fellow men in order to convert them.
9. Raids and crusades have been justified in the name of X, particularly during times of crisis.
10. X is personified in the form of a messiah.
There’s one little catch. Madison reminded us over 200 years ago: men are no angels.
Full disclosure: I’m an atheist. So I’m not concerned about growing secularism.
I say live and let live; pray as you like and leave me to my beliefs. What keeps me up at night is the fact that we, as Americans, have begun to lose faith in ourselves—i.e. in the Weberian sense (work ethic) and the Tocquevillian sense (voluntary association).
Indeed, I rather prefer faith of the religious variety, as long as it is kept to a slow burn within the hearts of individuals who tolerate religious difference in others. Indeed, what distinguishes the faithful from the worshipers of Government is that most religious folks see charitable acts as motivated from within—and moral responsibility for one’s fellow man lies in one’s breast. Worshipers of government are not so tolerant. They’re not nearly as concerned with your intentions. They have apotheosized compulsion itself, which means they’re worshiping government power. Despite all the talk of “social justice” and the “common good,” they cannot escape the fact that politics is the means by which men bend other men to their will and call it right. Liberty is the casualty.
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